End of the dry season

The Khmer New Year celebrations are over, and now it's back to work for everyone!  For tourists, this means that Angkor Thom is open.  Angkor Thom is a collection of temples, buildings, and carvings in different places.  This was the first time we did not take a tuk-tuk between stops.  Rather, our driver dropped us off at one end of Angkor Thom, and explained that we would follow a path with several stops, depending on what we wanted to see.  He would meet us at the end of it all, and bade us farewell.

Before this, we drove over an amazing bridge.  I've made a collage of it all, but it was simply exquisite to see!  Men with different heads were holding portions of the hydra, and these men-hydra sculptures formed the railings of the one-lane bridge through which we had to drive to get to Angkor Thom.

The Bayon.  I have no idea what this area is, but it was fantastic.  I was smiled upon at every turn by these faces of Jayavarman VII, the originator of this temple.  Apparently, scholars still debate the function of this temple, what it means in terms of the transition of monarchs, and so on.  For Ryan and I, we both agreed that this must have been something to see in its prime.  Again, if you are in this region and temples are on your list, the Bayon is a must-see.  For me, it offered a strange mix of joy and eeriness, which I'm not sure everyone would get depending on how many tourists are there with you taking photos and what-not.

After the Bayon, we visited the other highlights of Angkor Thom, including the Leper King and Elephant terraces, which offer fantastic carvings to the visitor.  Ryan's favorite was the dude holding the pizza pans at the Terrace of the Leper King.  I couldn't help thinking there's no way a democratic state could ever produce something like this; you definitely need a dictator or a monarch for good ruins.

Then, we went to Ta Keo, which is currently undergoing a LOT of restoration.  Sadly, we couldn't find much in the way carvings here, and the temple itself isn't as memorable as some of the other ones.  However, we will remember Ta Keo for the steepest and scariest set of temple stairs we encountered on this trip.  For me, these stairs were even more steep than those on the great pyramid of Chichén Itzá.

For us, the best part of the day was returning to Ta Prohm to get to look around ourselves.  On our first visit, we thought we met a particularly zealous park official who just wanted to make sure we saw everything at Ta Prohm: the smiling Buddha, good views of the trees overwhelming the temple, etc.  However, what we came to realize after two days of temples, is that some Cambodians pose as employees, offer to show tourists a few secrets at each temple, and then ask for a donation.  The information is good, but a surreptitious way of earning a tip.  On this day, we were going to really take our time at Ta Prohm, walk around at our leisure, and definitely refuse any assistance from anyone looking official.

Upon our arrival, the rains came, and what a deluge it was!  All of the other tourists sought shelter in the hallways and closed domes of the temple.  Already soaked, we opted to walk around the temple, take our time with some of the choice photo locations, and just have fun.  We essentially had Ta Prohm to ourselves, and it was a great second visit!  We never did find the dinosaur carving (google it), but these are perhaps some of our favorite shots from the entire week.

This was the one good rain we experienced all week.  We had bright, sunny skies for the remainder of our time in Siem Reap, which made for prettier pictures but also very warm days.  Although there was only one rainy day, we like to think that we were able to see both the end of the dry season and the start of the rainy season.